Google Search: How to make a banner in illustrator

It's been a while, but I'm back at it again - card making. Good thing everyone has a birthday!

Bad thing is I'm tired of googling images that only meet 75% of what I envision and cleaning them up for use. Gimp used to be my best friend for the clean up task but now that Illustrator is in my life, I feel the need to create. So, today, after I created some of the raw pieces of the dinosaur birthday card, I realized the card needed a little umph. Perhaps a 'Happy Birthday' banner will do the trick. The creator in me googled 'how to make a banner in illustrator'.

Bless Google for returning this blog as the first search result and bless the soul of The Design Playbook for such detailed yet easy to follow instructions.

Now, my creation will be complete! While I work on the banner, the cutouts are laid out to dry.

Silhouette SD Imports: How to create custom die cuts

Thank goodness for helpful blogs like Rhonna's. I see I'm not the only one that's madly in love with my Mac and Silhouette SD.

I first read about the Silhouette machine on Twig & Thistle and after about a week of holding out, I placed my order. It's been about two weeks since I've gotten it but up until today, I've only used the Silhouette Studio. I guess it must have been perfect timing based on reading all the reviews because the compatibility with Mac is something recent.

What Silhouette Studio is still missing though is the auto trace tool. Being in the technology field, I know THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY! So the fabulous world wide web told me that using Adobe Illustrator and a nifty plugin called Cutting Master 2 Robo v1.80, I too can create my Silhouette cutouts!

Pre-requisites:

1. Install the Silhouette machine

2. Install Adobe Illustrator

3. Install the Cutting Master 2 Robo Plug-in

Steps:

1. Follow all steps up to Step 4a on Rhonna's blog

2. Drag and drop your jpg or png file to Illustrator

3. Use the Selection Tool to resize the image (TIP: Hold SHIFT when dragging from corners to keep aspect ratio)

4. Select the image

5. Go to 'Object -> Live Trace -> Make and Expand

6. After paths are automatically created, right click on one of the plot paths and select 'Ungroup'

7. Use the Direct Selection Tool to select paths created around the border of the image

8. Follow step 4c on Rhonna's blog

Here's a Halloween inspiration idea from Tim Holtz!

References:

Silhouette Studio v1.0.15 for Mac

Cutting Master 2 Robo v1.80 (Plug - in for Adobe Illustrator)

Silhouette Blog

Tim Holtz Halloween Luminaries

My configurations:

Mac OS X 10.5.8

Adobe Illustrator CS5

Cutting Master 2 Robo v1.80

**if you have Adobe Illustrator CS4, download Cutting Master 2 Robo v1.61 directly from Silhouette America's website

Thank You Cards: Stamped, Glued and Yet to be Delivered

Where does the time go? It's been 2 weeks since the big party and I'm still a bit upset at myself for not taking a single picture except for one shot with the birthday boy as he was cutting his cake. But, at least we have reminders of the special day (the 'seeds of wisdom' or more like 'seeds of sarcastic jokes' jar, the koozies, the sunflower seed favors, everyone else's pictures of the bag pipers, the boylan's rootbeer bottles, holes in the ground from the pitched tent, large mason jar centerpieces, and lots of play sand).

It is now up to D to send out the 30+ thank you cards that I made using leftovers from the invitations and a theme inspired by the 'seeds of wisdom'. Lets see how long it takes for his hands to hurt from the writing.

I was inspired by Twig & Thistle's surprise 30th birthday invitations envelopes. First of all, what a coincidence is it that the posting was for a surprise 30th Birthday? Secondly the timing couldn't have been closer. D's party was August 14th while the date on Twig & Thistle's invitation says July 10th. It must be meant to be (insert smile here).

In any case, I loved the idea so, I used Gimp and Pages to bring the project to life. I also got a little help from the following resources:

- Gimp Arc Text Filter

- Instructions on how to draw a circle in Gimp

Mac App: Gimp isn't so Gimpy

I love my Macbook & I love all the mac open source applications as well. It took a while to find a good open source graphics editing app but once I found Gimp, my arts never went limp [insert corny smile here].
I recently upgraded to v2.6 and I just started using plug-ins and custom brushes. There are so many plug-ins and custom brushes out there but very little information on how to install them. After doing a bit of googling, I puzzled some of the many solutions together and here you are folks, a comprehensive list of instructions to follow on how to install Gimp plug-ins and brushes to Gimp v2.6.

How to Install a Gimp Plug-in (v2.6) on a Mac (Leopard OS):
Pre-requisite knowledge: Basic navigation on a mac (opening files, right-click,
locate downloaded files), basic knowledge of Terminal, know what your terminal password is, how to locate and use Gimp Plug-ins

1. Download the plug-in (files with .py, .c, etc extensions)
2. Navigate to /Applications
3. RIGHT click & select "Show Package Contents"
4. Navigate to /Resources/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins
5. Move/Copy the plug-in file to the "plug-ins" folder
6. Open Terminal
7. Type "cd //"
8. Type "cd applications/gimp.app/contents/resources/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins"
9. Type "sudo chmod u+x [insert plugin name here].py"
10. Enter your password
11. Restart Gimp
12. Follow instructions from site or readme file where plug-in was downloaded to locate the plug-in on Gimp


How to Install an Adobe Photoshop brush into Gimp (v2.6) on a Mac (Leopard OS):
Pre-requisite knowledge: Basic navigation on a mac (opening files, right-click, locate downloaded files), how to locate and use Gimp Brushes

1. Download the Adobe Photoshop brush (files with .abr, etc extensions)
2. Navigate to /Applications
3. RIGHT click on GIMP & select "Show Package Contents"
4. Navigate to Contents/Resources/share/gimp/2.0/brushes
5. Move/Copy the brush file to the "brushes" folder
6. Restart Gimp

Happy Gimping!

Here are some of my Gimp creations for various occassions.